Practice (2)
Practicing with color grading, masking and the curve tool
After watching lots of tutorials on how these tools exactly work, I went ahead and started practicing with my new knowledge. Here are some of the images I have practiced with.
Please click on the images to see them full size, substack changes them into little squares.
I started with a simple image of some grass, I liked the way it was lit up but I thought it needed a more soft and dreamy look. I used the masking tool to highlight the bright spots and also darken the shadows some more. After that I went in with the curve tool so the contrast didn’t look too harsh. I don’t like the wat the sky is washed out so I tried to make it look better by adding a haze. I changed the colours slightly but not too much. Looking back I might have added too much haziness but I like the way it turned a rather boring image into a dreamy one.
For this next image I used an image I didn’t like because I accidentally used a vintage looking filter that was built into my camera to take it. So I used the color grading tool and curve tool to try and fix it, and in my opinion I don’t think I did too bad. I also removed the reflection of the trees because I feel like the image was too crowded.
I really like the way this image turned out and prefer the cooler tones.
The next image is one I didn’t want to change a lot because I already enjoyed the way it looked. I just added some haze.
In this image of a swan I didn’t want to change too much, only that I didn’t like how harsh and sharp it was. So I used the curve tool to change the contrast and used a masking tool to make the swan have a more softer look.
I did the same for this image.
I thought this picture wasn’t worth looking at first but then I thought I might as well try to do something to make it look more interesting. I wanted to change the colors to make It look older and get rid of some elements. I’m not sure how I feel about the picture.
This next picture is an image I took at landbouwbelang, it’s a room with books that belonged to someone who used to live here. My friend who lives there gave me a tour and told me all about the interesting people who had lived there and who live there now. I wanted to take away some distracting items and make the picture feel a bit warmer, so I used some color grading and changed the contrast.
The next picture is one I have had in my camera roll for a while but I never really paid attention to it until now. I saw there where some sneaky light flares and decided to try to do something with it. I feel like this picture has some potential but I am still trying to make different versions of it until I find one I really like.
An image of some light peeking through the trees. I wanted to add a more warm feeling so I changed the colours a bit and used the masking tool to keep the light coming through.
Reflecting on these images I think I like the one with the ducks most, because I am surprised how different the before and after look. I’m going to continue editing images in different ways so I can experience what the Lightroom tools are capable of. I would also want to try and make more dramatic changes to my images as a lot of these look very similar. But sometimes less is more.
Next, I’m going to look into other artists and challenge myself to create more abstract and interesting looking pictures that tell more of a story, or tell a story if you look at them together.